Sunday, December 23, 2012

I've just found a really interesting new painting surface - marble and granite countertop samples! These 4x4" blocks have just the right amount of texture, and once gessoed, make a fun painting surface. I'm also using a shadowbox now for some small daily paintings, and have just finished these two paintings tonight.

Thursday, December 13, 2012

This is a painting I started nearly 3 years ago as a still life setup. I agonized over it for quite a while, and then finally gave up and put it away. A few weeks ago I brought it out, saw how it could easily be completed, and had it finished within half an hour.

The moral - don't give up! Learning painting skills takes time. What seems impossible now will be a piece of cake in a few years. Painting requires a lot of motor memory, study, and learning techniques. There are no shortcuts to putting in the studio hours. However, time and practice will eventually pay off, if you put in the effort.

Sunday, December 2, 2012

So I've been "borrowing" candles to paint from Beatrice Taylor Candles, located next to High Hand Gallery. Here are a couple of recent efforts, done alla prima from life with a few touchups afterwards.

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Last year, the folks at one of the galleries I'm with requested that each artist create ornaments for the holiday season. With that request, I set about making ornaments. I worked with polymer clay, and spent several days trying to get ornaments that were good enough to display, with no luck. Frustrated, I stopped - and then realized I had *painted* ornaments a few years prior. (You know how they say, "Do what you're good at?") Long story short, these were submitted and sold well last year, so I plan to do holiday ornament paintings every year.

These three paintings are currently on view at High Hand Gallery in Loomis, CA, through December 2012. This is a great gallery with many talented artists; stop by if you're in the area!

Research and Recreation of Traditional Painting Techniques is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions for the charitable purposes of Research and Recreation of Traditional Painting Techniques must be made payable to Fractured Atlas only and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.

If you are an artist and have a project you want to get sponsored, go to Fractured Atlas and use code FS14235 to get your first month's membership free!